Packaging food articles in clear containers enables consumers to visually inspect the food articles prior to purchasing. The placement of such food articles within the clear container also may provide consumers with the ability to further assess the quality of the food articles contained therein. For some food articles, such as cucumbers, consumers may prefer to see the pulp of the cucumber (as opposed to the skin) to help evaluate the quality of the food articles. Thus, consumers find it desirable to have the cut face or pulp of the food articles disposed adjacent to the outside wall of the containers.
The ten “pickles” is used herein to refer to cucumbers or portions thereof that are packaged in brine with spices such as, for example, garlic, dill and/or other spices or flavorings. In addition to pickled cucumbers, the discussion herein also may apply to other pickled foods such as a variety of pickled vegetables.
A great deal of precision is required to provide a desired quantity of cucumber and brine in an appropriate ratio, and with the cucumber slices or spears in the desired orientation and configuration. Prior art methods of packing cucumber sections such as slices and spears into jars often involve using automated equipment to load the sections around the periphery of the jar with pulp surfaces rather than skin primarily visible through the side wall of the jar, and then manually inserting additional cucumber sections into the center of the jar. During packing, one of the problems that must be addressed is maintaining the food sections in alignment with one another, as the outer sections (those disposed along the container wall) may tend to collapse inward, prior to packing of the inner sections. Another problem is to provide a desired quantity of sections in each jar, while dealing with cucumber sections that are not all of the same size and shape. While the cucumbers may be sorted so that all cucumbers for particular sizes of jars are within certain ranges, some variation inevitably occurs, both as to size and as to shape. For example, some cucumbers are asymmetrical, and might be described as somewhat banana-shaped.
Pickle sections are typically sized so that their lengths are close to the vertical dimension of the jar in which they are packaged, and the outer pickle sections are often positioned with their upper ends contacting a shoulder of the jar. The cucumbers may be trimmed to predetermined lengths prior to longitudinal slicing. For example, an end of each cucumber may be sliced off prior to sectioning so that when loaded into the jar, each section has a flat top.
The above-described methods and apparatus for producing pickles, and for slicing or sectioning food products and placing them into containers, are not entirely satisfactory.